by Fiona Cummings

Contents

Cover

Title Page

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Have you been Invited to all these Sleepovers?

Sleepover Kit List

Copyright

About the Publisher

Brilliant! It’s you! I’ve been looking everywhere for you. How’s it going? Or should I say “Hoots mon! Och aye the noo! And ‘Donald where’s yer troosers’!” Hey, hey, hey – you’re thinking that old Kenny’s finally lost it, aren’t you? Go on admit it! Well you’re wrong, so very wrong. All I’m trying to do is set the scene a bit, you know, get you in the mood for our latest Sleepover adventure.

Whadayamean, it sounds like the weirdest adventure yet if we all end up talking gibberish in a strange accent? That was a Scottish accent, dummy, and I am half-Scottish so I should know what I’m talking about.

I know the others wanted to see you first so they could spill the beans. Frankie always thinks that she should be the storyteller, just because she fancies herself as a bit of an actress. And Fliss, well, I know that she wanted to tell you about it, because she says that only she can begin to describe how scary it really was. (That’s just because she’s a big scaredy-cat herself. You should have seen her this time. Talk about quivering mess!) Rosie was pretty carried away by the adventure too, she was so glad that her mum had let her come. But I guess if anyone other than moi was going to tell you the story, it should be Lyndz. You see, it’s kind of because of her that it happened in the first place.

Now I don’t know about you, but I think that autumn half-term is often a major letdown. The weather’s usually wet and windy, so you can’t spend too much time outdoors. The nights are drawing in so your parents start panicking about you being home early. Summer’s so far away you can barely remember it, and Christmas is just a bit of a twinkle in the distance. And basically you’re kind of stuck in the middle.

I can’t ever remember going away during autumn half-term before, but this year Dad asked us one night over dinner:

“How does a week in Scotland grab you?”

“Ooh I know this one, don’t help me!” I piped up. “Is the answer something like ‘under your kilt’?”

Mum, Dad, my oldest sister Emma and my yuckiest sister Molly, all stared at me with open mouths. (Molly’s was still full of mashed potato so it wasn’t a pretty sight!)

“No Kenny,” said Dad at last. “This isn’t a joke. We’ve decided that this year we’re going to spend a few days with Great Uncle Bob.”

I could tell by Mum’s face that it was more a case of Dad deciding that we were going, there was no we about it.

We’d often talked about going to stay with Great Uncle Bob in the past, but Mum had always come up with a million and one reasons why we couldn’t. Whenever I asked her what Great Uncle Bob was like, she thought for about half an hour, her face becoming more and more agitated, before finally saying something like, “He’s very eccentric,” through gritted teeth.

“It’ll be great fun!” Dad reassured us, trying his best to ignore Mum’s black looks. “We’ll be there for Bob’s annual party. It’s a real treat by all accounts.”

“Is it his birthday or something?” Molly asked, all shiny-eyed with enthusiasm (puke!).

“No, it’s a tradition he started some years ago,” Dad explained. “On the last Saturday in October, he invites everyone from the next village to join him for a massive shindig before winter sets in.”

“Cool!” Molly gushed.

My sister’s enthusiasm just about made me want to throw up. It’s not that I’m a misery guts or anything. In fact there’s usually no one who enjoys a good party more than me. It’s just that I was kind of worried about someone and I knew that it wouldn’t exactly be fiesta-time in their household over half-term.

You’re not going to believe it when I tell you that the person I was worried about was Lyndz. Yes Lyndz, our Lyndz, Sleepover Lyndz! I knew you’d be shocked. She’s just about the happiest person around, isn’t she? Normally. But things weren’t normal at Lyndz’s place any more. You see, her mum was being a bit – well, weird, basically.

Now you know Lyndz’s mum, don’t you? Isn’t she just about the most laid-back person on the planet? I mean, my mum has always said she doesn’t know how Mrs Collins copes with bringing up five children. (Yep, Lyndz has four brothers, two older than she is and two younger.)

Not only that, but Mrs Collins also works, running a class teaching women how to have babies. She helps out at the local playgroup too. Lyndz’s house is always in a mess – part of it is either being pulled down or built up. Mrs Collins just takes it all in her stride and bakes cakes and stuff even though the roof’s falling down around her ears. And when we have sleepovers at Lyndz’s, she’s really cool because she says she loves having girls around the place.

“You make a nice change from those great smelly sons of mine!” she smiles. And she doesn’t bat an eyelid when we get up to some of our silly stunts.

Well that’s what Mrs Collins used to be like. For the last few weeks she’s been really different. She looks kind of grey and tired all the time, she hardly ever laughs and she just seems kind of fed up with everything.

“What’s up with your mum?” we asked Lyndz the last time we were over there for a sleepover. “She seems a bit down today.”

“Today!” Lyndz snorted. “She’s down every day. I can’t remember her ever being up!”

The rest of us looked at each other and pulled worried faces.

“But your mum always used to be so bubbly,” Frankie reminded her. “Maybe something’s happened to upset her.”

“Well, I think she’s kind of upset that we’re not going to our grandparents in Holland at half-term,” Lyndz confided. “She’d really been looking forward to it, then we had to cancel it. I think it was probably because it was going to cost too much money. I heard her and Dad arguing about it.”

“Oh dear!” we all clucked sympathetically.

“But I can’t believe she’s still upset about that,” Lyndz mumbled. “She’s known for weeks that we couldn’t go.”

“Maybe she’s really ill,” Fliss suggested. “She doesn’t look too great, does she?”

“Fliss!” we yelled together, piling on top of her to shut her up.

“Gerroff!” Fliss spluttered. “I was only saying…”

“Well, don’t!” Rosie giggled, twanging one of the scrunchies in Fliss’s hair and mussing up her beautiful blonde plaits.

“You’re going to pay for that!” shrieked Fliss and chased us out of Lyndz’s room, down the stairs and through the lounge.

“Chase, chase, chase!” yelled Ben, Lyndz’s four-year-old brother, tagging along behind us.

We ran out into the hall – but didn’t realise until it was too late that a load of plywood had been stacked against one wall. It was dark so we couldn’t see too well, and the first thing we knew about it was when we tripped over it. It came shooting down all over us and all over the floor. It made such a loud CRACK that Ben started to howl from shock.

“WHAT IS GOING ON HERE?” a voice boomed from behind us. “Lyndsey Collins, I thought you had more sense, I really did.”

Lyndz’s mum appeared with a face as black as thunder. She scooped Ben into her arms and just stood there ranting at us with her hair all over the place.

“I have enough to deal with without extra chaos brought about by you lot. Now you know the rules, Lyndz – stay in your room and don’t go chasing about all over the house. Mind you, if your father ever finishes sorting out this hallway it will be a miracle. All my married life I’ve lived in a mess, and I’m just about sick of it. Now go upstairs and play quietly. I’ll call you when supper’s ready!”

She stalked back into the kitchen and we slunk up to Lyndz’s room.

Nobody said a word until we were safely upstairs. Then we all sank down on Lyndz’s bed.

“Crikey Lyndz, I see what you mean!” Frankie gasped.

“Yeah, I mean that sounded more like Fliss’s mum than yours!” I agreed. “Has she been taking lessons from her?”

Fliss looked as though she was about to have a go at me. Then she noticed the big fat tears trickling down Lyndz’s cheeks.

“Never mind,” she soothed, putting an arm around Lyndz’s shoulders. “Your mum’s probably just having a bit of a bad time at the moment. You know, sometimes stuff seems to get on top of mothers, doesn’t it? It’ll pass, I’m sure.”

We all nodded, although you could tell that really we weren’t sure at all.

“Well I hope it’s passed before half-term,” Lyndz sniffed. “Because it’s not going to be a barrel of laughs with Mum like this, is it?”

We all had to agree with that.

And I just couldn’t get that thought out of my head as Dad was telling us about Great Uncle Bob’s marvellous party. I just wished there was some way that I could cheer up Lyndz. And her mum.

When I got to school the next day, Frankie was in the middle of a kickboxing frenzy. I had to dive out of her way pretty sharpish otherwise I’d have had my teeth kicked out.

“Hey Buffy, slow down there! I’m not a vampire that needs slaying, you know!” I grinned, leaping on to her back. We’ve been best friends forever, me and Frankie. The Sleepover Club kind of came along later. It was at times like this that I felt like we were about four again!

“Ha-ya!” She flung me on to the ground. “How do I know that? Appearances can be deceptive!”

“Well I haven’t got pointy teeth for a start…”

“That’s a matter of opinion!” grinned Rosie.

“…and blood is definitely not my drink of choice!” I continued. “I much prefer Dr Pepper!”

“Aha! You mean you enjoy quaffing a medico’s vital juices!” Frankie hovered over me menacingly. “Interesting!”

“Hey Lyndz, Fliss, help me out, would you?” I called over to them. “Buffy here’s gone into overdrive!”

But neither Lyndz nor Fliss moved. They carried on leaning against the wall. We could tell just by looking at their faces that something was seriously wrong.

“Wassup?” Frankie, Rosie and I raced over to them.

Lyndz just shook her head and started to sob.

“It’s Lyndz’s mum,” Fliss told us quietly. “She went ballistic again last night, then started to cry and couldn’t stop. She said she didn’t know why she was so upset, she just felt miserable.”

“Is she OK today?” Rosie asked sympathetically.

“She said she was going to go and have a chat with a friend,” Fliss continued, not giving Lyndz the chance to reply. “I think that should make her feel better, don’t you?”

“Oh yeah!” Frankie nodded. “My gran always says, ‘a problem shared is a problem halved’. She’ll probably be feeling much better by tonight Lyndz, you’ll see.”

“I hope so,” Lyndz sniffed. She looked so miserable.

We all gave her a big hug, and for the rest of the day we made sure that we did whatever Lyndz wanted. If she was having a rough time at home, the least we could do was cheer her up at school.

I know that as the afternoon wore on, Lyndz started to feel pretty churned up at the thought of going home. But when we saw her mum at the school gates in their big van she smiled and waved at us like she always used to.

“Your mum does look a lot brighter.” Fliss gave Lyndz’s arm a little squeeze.

“Yeah, she’ll be fine now!” Frankie reassured her.

Lyndz gave us a little grin and ran to the van. As we waved her off, Rosie whispered:

“I hope she will be OK. I hate seeing her so down.”

I thought about Lyndz all the way home. And spookily, the first thing Mum said to me as I got through the door was:

“Have you got a minute, Laura? I want a word about Lyndz.”

“Crikey Mum, how long have you been able to read minds?” I asked her. Although actually that was a pretty silly question – Mum always seems to know when I’ve done something wrong.

Mum ignored me. “Lyndz’s mum came to see me today. I think things are getting a bit on top of her at the moment.”

I nodded. “I know.”

“Well,” Mum continued, “I’ve had a word with your father and he agrees with me. What Patsy needs is a complete rest – away from the house, away from the chores, away from Cuddington.”

Now if Dad suggested that, I knew it must be right. Dad’s a doctor and he always knows what he’s talking about. I’m going to be a doctor just like him when I’m older – after I’ve finished playing for Leicester City of course!

“Yeah, that sounds like a sensible diagnosis!” I agreed, stroking my chin in a serious doctor-type gesture.

“Well that’s good,” laughed Mum, “because I was thinking about asking Lyndz’s family to come up to Scotland with us for the week. Uncle Bob has plenty of rooms, and according to your dad he just loves having a house full of people. What do you think? I wanted to run it by you first before I phoned Patsy.”

“That’s a great idea!” I ran over to Mum and gave her one of my Kenny Specials (that’s when I hug someone so tightly they go red in the face and start gasping for air!).

“Phew! I’m glad you’re so pleased,” Mum spluttered, releasing herself from my grip. “I think it will do them all the world of good. I’ll go and phone Patsy now.”

As she was dialling the number, she added, “And it means that you’ll have a friend there too, seeing as Molly’s taking Carli.”

“She’s WHAT?” I screamed. “Since when?”

“Since last night when she asked me. Is there a problem? Oh, hello there, Patsy…”

A problem, she says! Not much! Molly the horrible Monster is bad enough on her own, but when she’s with her gruesome best mate Carli it’s Nightmare City!

Still, at least if I had Lyndz with me it would be two against two. And I was sure that with all our devious Sleepover tricks we could get the better of them!

Actually, just thinking that made me a bit sad. I wished ALL the Sleepover gang could come up to Scotland with us. I mean, I really really like Lyndz and everything, but it seemed a bit mean going away with just one of my friends. I felt guilty somehow, as though I’d sort of betrayed the others.

“Pull yourself together, McKenzie!” I told myself sternly. “The others won’t see it that way. They’ll just be glad that Lyndz is going to have a good holiday!”

Boy was I wrong about that!

The next morning when I got to school, Lyndz was as frisky as a new puppy. She was laughing and joking and larking about.

“What’s got into you?” Frankie was teasing her as I walked up to them. “Has someone put happy sugar in your Ready Brek or something?”

“Kenny! Kenny! I’m so glad you’ve arrived!” Lyndz rushed up to me and almost swung me off my feet. “I didn’t want to say anything until you were here too.”

The others looked at me questioningly.

“Isn’t it great?” Lyndz gushed. “Kenny’s mum rang last night to see if we’d all like to go up to Scotland with them at half-term. Isn’t that brill?”

“Fantastic!”

“Excellent!”

The others all started leaping about too. They were taking the news better than I’d expected.

“Where will we stay?” Rosie wondered.

“What kind of clothes will I have to bring?” Fliss demanded.

Whoa, girls!

“Erm, no, I think you’ve got it wrong,” I mumbled. “Mum asked Lyndz and her family.”

“Mrs McKenzie told Mum we’d be doing her a favour because she could do with some sensible adult company,” Lyndz explained quietly, suddenly aware that she’d just rammed her great size nines into her gob. “But Stuart and Tom aren’t coming,” she carried on, as if that made the slightest bit of difference. “Mum’s sister Lorraine is going to stay at our place to keep an eye on them.”

“Kenny?” Frankie stared at me. “Why didn’t you tell us about this?”

“I-I-I didn’t know until yesterday,” I stammered. “I didn’t really…”

My voice trailed off as I suddenly saw Lyndz looking very troubled.

“I’m really glad you’re coming, Lyndz,” I told her truthfully. “We’ll have a great time. IT’LL DO YOU GOOD!” I added meaningfully, looking at the others.

The whistle went for the start of school, and I’ve never been as glad to hear it in my life! I felt bad about the others, but I couldn’t help thinking that they were being a bit mean to poor old Lyndz.

During the morning when we had to split up into groups for project work, Fliss, Rosie and Frankie quickly huddled together, leaving Lyndz and me by ourselves. Even Mrs Weaver our teacher raised her eyes at that. And at breaktime, although they hung round with us they kept making catty remarks about how they were going to have the “best sleepover ever” during half-term.

“What a pity you two won’t be there to join in!” Fliss told me and Lyndz sarcastically. “But you obviously prefer each other’s company nowadays.”

By lunchtime Lyndz was a dithering wreck. We were all sitting on a bench when she announced:

“Look, I’m going to tell Mum that we can’t come away with you, Kenny. It’s my fault that we’ve all fallen out and I can’t bear it!”

Her chin started to tremble and her eyes filled with tears.

“Right then, are you satisfied now?” I turned on the others angrily. “Lyndz needs a holiday more than anyone. It just so happens that it’s going to be with me. If there was a way to invite you all up to Scotland I would, believe me. But Great Uncle Bob’s about ninety or something. I don’t think it would be very good for his health if we all descended on him, do you?”

The others shook their heads and looked suitably ashamed. They gave Lyndz an extra big hug.

“Sorry for being so mean,” Frankie told her. “You go and have fun – just not too much, OK?”

At least we were all friends again, which was the main thing. But my big speech back there had got me thinking. Why couldn’t we all go up to Scotland? Uncle Bob wasn’t really ninety, and Dad had already said that he had loads of rooms and loved having his house full of people. What could be better than having it full of my friends? I knew that Mum would be speaking to him that night to confirm the arrangements, so I’d have to ask her if the rest of the gang could come with us before she phoned.

All afternoon I rehearsed how I would ask her. The only problem was that as far as Mum was concerned, us Sleepover girls together meant only one thing – TROUBLE. And it was one thing coping with that in your own home, but quite another transporting it hundreds of miles up into the wilds of Scotland.

I decided to just grab the bull by the horns and ask Mum straight out as soon as I got home. But it was just my luck that she was tackling Dad’s paperwork. Now if there’s one thing I’ve learnt in my ten years on this planet, it is never to disturb Mum when she’s got her business-head on. The fall-out can be pretty spectacular – I still have the scars to prove it! And it was the worst luck ever that she had her business-head on all through dinner and all through the rest of the evening. In fact she only snapped out of it when the phone rang.

“Oh Uncle Bob!” she spoke crisply into the receiver. “I was just about to ring you.”

Drat, drat and double blooming drat covered in bogies. I was too late – there was no way that the rest of the Sleepover gang could come up to Scotland with us now!

Whilst Mum chatted to Great Uncle Bob, I sat on the stairs and put my head in my hands. I’d let my chums down big time. I know that they weren’t expecting to go to Scotland with us or anything, but I’d kind of got used to the idea in my head.

I’d never been to Great Uncle Bob’s house before, but I imagined it was like this enormous castle overlooking a lake. I figured that it would have about fifty bedrooms and they’d all have four-poster beds and jacuzzi baths just like the one Fliss has, only much bigger. I imagined the five of us swimming in the lake. Well, maybe Fliss wouldn’t actually swim in the lake, she’d just hover at the edge looking pretty…

“…Laura! Laura! For goodness sake, stop daydreaming! Uncle Bob wants a word with you!” Mum was holding out the receiver to me and looking very impatient.

What on earth could he want with me? I hadn’t been listening to Mum’s conversation at all, so I didn’t know what she’d told him about Lyndz and her family. Maybe he was going to explain to me why they couldn’t stay with us after all. I braced myself for the worst.

“Er, h-hello?” I stammered, taking the phone from Mum.

“Kenny! How are you?” a warm chuckly voice asked.

Now any adult who calls me Kenny instead of my stupid proper name is all right by me.

“Fine thanks!” I grinned.

“So I’m finally going to meet you and one of your friends – two for the price of one, eh?” he guffawed.

“Erm yes, thanks for letting Lyndz come too, Great Uncle Bob,” I said. “We really appreciate it.”

“The more the merrier. How are the rest of your Sleepover chums?” he asked.

Well, you could have knocked me down with a feather! How on earth did he know about them?

“Erm, fine thanks,” I whispered. I was beginning to see why Mum thought the guy was a bit strange.

“It seems such a pity that only one of your friends is going to accompany you up to Bonny Scotland. How about inviting the others as well? What are their names again? Frankie, Fliss and who’s the other one?”

The guy was seriously starting to spook me out now.

“R-Rosie!” I squeaked.

“Ah yes, that’s the one!” he chuckled. “I love reading about your sleepover exploits in your Christmas letters!”

Phew! So that’s how he knew about the Sleepover gang. (Mum makes us write these stupid letters to our rellies at Crimbo time and I always fill mine with stuff about our best sleepovers and of course news of Leicester City FC!)

Anyway, when I’d recovered myself I suddenly realised what Great Uncle Bob had suggested. It was like he could really read my mind!

“Thanks, Great Uncle Bob!” I screamed. “That’d be brilliant! I’ll ask them all tomorrow.”

“Oh Kenny – there’s just one thing before you go.”

“Yes?”

“Do you think you could just call me ‘Uncle Bob’? I don’t want to feel like a doting old fool just yet!”

I grinned. “OK Uncle Bob, you’ve got it. See ya!”

I handed the phone over to Dad, who was hovering by my shoulder. This was just wicked! I couldn’t wait to see the others at school the next day. But I was going to make sure that I had some fun with them first.

The next morning I was in the playground first for once. As soon as Rosie appeared, I started doing this crazy jig.

“You look like a turkey with a firework up its bottom!” she shrieked. “What on earth are you doing?”

“The highland fling!” I shouted, throwing myself into my dancing with gusto. “Lyndz and I have to learn it for Uncle Bob’s party. It’s going to be wicked.”

“Oh!” Rosie’s face fell. “Right.”

“Yeah, he has this mega big party every year and we’re going to be there for it. It’s going to be ace! Hey Lyndz, I’m going to have to teach you the highland fling before we go up to Scotland, you know!”

Lyndz was walking into the playground with Frankie and Fliss. She looked kind of embarrassed when I mentioned the Scottish trip, like she didn’t want to upset the others or something. But I didn’t let that stop me.

“Uncle Bob’s got this stonking great pile of a house. It’s really mega. You’d love it, guys!” I looked round the others then clapped my hand over my mouth. “Oops sorry, I forgot! Still, Lyndz and I’ll tell you all about it when we get back, won’t we?”

Lyndz just went bright red and looked at her feet. The others looked seriously peeved.

But I didn’t stop there. By lunchtime I’d told them that Uncle Bob had hundreds of servants, including chefs who could knock up any delicacy you fancied. I’d also told them how all the guests at his party would be in the height of fashion and dripping in diamonds. You should have seen their faces! Honestly, if looks could kill, I’d be dead a million times over.

I was just about to launch into a description of Uncle Bob’s (imaginary) helicopter and speedboat when Frankie snarled:

“OK McKenzie, I think we get the picture! You and Lyndz are going to have a fantastic time in Scotland and we’re not. Well quite frankly I pity Lyndz. I wouldn’t want to spend all my half-term with such a bragger. I don’t know what’s got into you, Kenny. You’re not the same girl we used to know.”

The others stared at me hard and shook their heads. Even Lyndz was looking at me sadly.

“We wouldn’t come to Scotland with you if you paid us, would we girls?” Frankie growled.

“No way!”

“No thanks!”

I grinned. My plan had worked.

“Well that’s a pity,” I said innocently. “Because I was going to ask you all if you wanted to come with us too!”

“You’re kidding!” The others started doing impressions of goldfishes with their mouths open.

“No, straight up,” I admitted. “Uncle Bob invited you himself last night. I was just winding you up to pay you back for being so mean yesterday!”

“Kenny, you creep!” Frankie leapt on to my back.

“Still, if you’re not going to come it doesn’t matter,” I shrugged, shaking her off.

“‘Course we will, you dill!” Frankie grinned. “Especially if your Uncle’s place is as fantastic as you say.”

“Ah well, I actually made that up!” I confessed. “I’ve never even been there myself. It could be one big run-down old shack for all I know.”

“Oh well, in that case,” Rosie said jokingly, “I don’t think we should go. What do you think, Fliss?”

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